We End The Alphabet With .XYZ, We Should End Domain Names The Same Way

byMorganonApril 4, 2014

It’s official, .XYZ is going after .COM as the next big gTLD with a goal of 1,000,000 registrations in the first year and an endorsement from NPR to over 10 million listeners this morning. Today on NPR .XYZ founder Daniel Negari made his case,

“The way I looked at it was, we end the alphabet with .XYZ, we should end domain names the same way.”

While it might sound far fetched it’s a brave new world we are entering into and short, memorable extensions like this could go mainstream just like TLDs like .CO, .ME and .IO which have all seen incredible growth over the last year.

“Try and forget it, I dare you”says Negari in the interview, and to be honest with you, I can only think of three strings of characters that I can easily remember, ABC and XYZ. Combinations like QRS or random ones like FGS I could never remember but honestly try to forget ABC or XYZ.

I know what you’re going to say now. “But people have been using .COM forever and it will stay that way forever!” People will be using .COM most-likely forever but it’s not hard to see that its role is changing. The interview included a great quote from Tom from .MENU about what he thinks is the most likely scenario for .COM:

“.COM is like New York City, it isn’t going to go away, it’s full, it’s crowded, but it’s also very vital, and these new domains are the wild west and we hope eventually people will build on them.”

I also see .COM a lot like New York City, it can be a great place to live but it’s also expensive, and there are lots of other great cities in the US and around the world. I don’t see .COM going-away, and yes, I think it will continue to be the most expensive/premium Internet real estate, but I think TLDs like .XYZ have a shot at building something very meaningful with the next generation of Internet users.

The original domain name investors back in the 90’s believed that the web was going to take-off. People thought they were crazy, believed that reliable information came from your local library or a good newspaper. That changed, is it really that inconceivable to think things could change again?

You can hear the full interview with Daniel and read more about their plans on the .XYZ blog.

Now it’s your turn. NPR called .XYZ the next .COM, What do you think? Comment and let your voice be heard!

You are continuing to lose your reputation by just keep on promoting the worthless extension. Be a man and accept the responisbility and don’t push the agenda to average joe to waste their money.

BTW- if you do register .xyz, Please post your list, we will see how many have you registered. Most likely as I know you are a smart man yourself, you probably will not register anything, if you ever get any, those probably will be free from the .xyz or daniel.

The greatest myth about the internet is that its users come in generations.

Time-wise, a generation is 30 years. The internet is 25. So, all users are within the same generation. Everyone of age, who is able to, and so desires, does so concomitantly, with one’s contemporaries.

Teenagers use dot com, and if Methuselah were alive today, that would be his extension, and not dot ABC.

Some use a generation as the average interval of time between the birth of parents and the birth of their offspring; this also, does not apply to warrant an extension.

Bill KaraApril 4, 2014, 4:46 pm

@sukhjin more like you dared and you remembered enough to post a comment about it

toddApril 4, 2014, 5:02 pm

“It’s official, .XYZ is going after .COM as the next big gTLD with a goal of 1,000,000 registrations in the first year”

-I almost fell out of my chair laughing so loud at that comment. I would rather have a .biz than an .xyz and I hate .biz. How in the world can they make such a ridiculous statement. One million registrations in the first year when a true marketing genius like Juan Calle couldn’t get anywhere near that many in his first year and .CO had absolutely zero competition. I repeat ZERO competition. Calle has been hammering it hard since 2010 and he only has a total of 1.6 million and .xyz expects 1 million in year one. LOL This extension will not get 100,000 in it’s first year. Mark my words.

“Now it’s your turn. NPR called .XYZ the next .COM”

-and how much did they get paid to say that? .xyz sucks to pronounce because it’s basically like saying 3 separate words or 3 separate syllables. saying X-Y-Z takes the same amount of effort as any hypothetical 3 word extension such as .houseforsale, .carforsale etc….yes you are right that it’s short but so are many extensions and most of them aren’t pronounced as you would a 3 syllable word. I can’t imagine one viable company using this extension. The only thing good is that it’s cheap.

One positive outcome from the new TLDs is that there will be a massive marketing effort to make the public aware of domain names, the branding potential of shorter domain names and that .COM is not the only extension which exists. Currently .COM is by far the #1 TLD. I don’t know how successful these new registries will be in reaching their target registration stats or selling lots of premium keyword names at premium prices with premium renewals to boot. However, raising domain name awareness could actually benefit certain domainer portfolios. However, at this point I am still skeptical that investing in a portfolio of premium priced, premium renewal TLDs which prior to 2014 didn’t even exist will generate positive returns over the next five years.

MorganApril 4, 2014, 5:16 pm

It takes a lot of smart marketing to build a brand. If you look at what Juan, Lori and the whole team over at .CO did you can see a perfect of example of what happens when it’s done right.

Remember guys I still invest in .COM and don’t think any domain investor should put any money they aren’t ready to lose into new gTLDs. I just know the Internet is changing and more people will come online in the next decade than ever before.

What I’m talking about here is startup founders with big goals and a proven track record. I’m betting on Daniel and it really is impossible to forget .XYZ.

If you don’t like me talking about the changes that are coming you don’t have to. I’m always going to share what I think, heck it’s called MorganLinton.com

Keep the comments coming! Nobody has a crystal ball but we all know that five years from now things will be different.

Morgan is just posting what he heard on that radio broadcast, i listened to it and by the sound of it i don’t think they have to many followers.
If it was on Howard stern or Ryan Seacrest here in Los Angeles then it may have had an impact.
We all know this extension will get registrations just like all the rest, but will they sell other than domainer to domainer, will the business community take it seriously, i think we know the answer to that.
Morgan is just keeping his followers up to date in the world of domaining

The new G people think that dot COM people, such as Verisign will NEVER fight back, and compete; what if they lower dotcom prices, and actually expose the risks involved in building extensions with no government oversight; extensions that can raise your renewal price if your business ever became a magnate for traffic, all these new gTLD people are obligated to do is give you one cycle notice, and they CAN, and probably would make your name a premium, with renewals as high as their highest so far, $12,500, and perhaps more if they like. Nothing can stop that unlikely scenario, but it’s possible, even probable. IfVerisign runs such a campaign intensely, most gTLDs will feel it.

“It takes a lot of smart marketing to build a brand. If you look at what Juan, Lori and the whole team over at .CO did you can see a perfect of example of what happens when it’s done right”

“One million registrations in the first year when a true marketing genius like Juan Calle couldn’t get anywhere near that many in his first year and .CO had absolutely zero competition. I repeat ZERO competition. Calle has been hammering it hard since 2010 and he only has a total of 1.6 million and .xyz expects 1 million in year one.”

Yeah, great marketing can make a difference, but so can having a product that people actually want. I am not a fan of .CO but it is light years better than .XYZ as an extension.

The registry did a great job with marketing .CO, in a far less competitive market.
Yet .XYZ is somehow going to do better than .CO against hundreds of other choices? That makes no sense.

With hundreds of new .whatevers what makes .XYZ special?

Brad

albertApril 4, 2014, 5:45 pm

@Brand
I must say that I agree with you of where this was basically advertised.
A lot of people in the N.P.R. crowd don’t strike me as the entrepreneur type to go out and register such a name for a business.
I also must say the same for Ryan Seacrest and Howard Stern.

I am not sure who Danial is trying to sell this to, but unless it was free advertising, it was a waste of money.

On the other hand, my understanding is that it only cost about $100,000 for this T.L.D. and only $25,000 a year to renew.

That’s not much if you are trying to start a business.

I have never met Danial, but good luck to him.

NickApril 4, 2014, 6:22 pm

Yea. I dont think so.

MorganApril 4, 2014, 6:26 pm

@brand – that is correct, I just tell it how I see it. Not me or any of my blog readers know what is going to happen over the next ten years. If any of you can then I want to hire you!

How much could you possibly pay someone who knows what’s going to happen over the years?

MorganApril 4, 2014, 6:32 pm

@brad – you say .CO is better than .XYZ, is your definition of better shorter, easier-to-remember, what criteria are you looking at?

For me I look at easy-to-remember and I think it’s hard to forget .XYZ. While I like TLDs like .TIPS this is only good for one specific vertical, is it really that hard to believe that .XYZ could be used in a multitude of contexts?

For those of you who have never met Daniel or taken the time to talk to him or his team then you’re not dealing with the same amount of information that I am. Call him on the phone, talk to him about what he’s doing, then come back and comment, otherwise you really are just making things up, I make decisions based on data.

The data I have shows me that Daniel is an absolute rockstar when it comes to launching successful companies. If you don’t know what Daniel has done in the last ten years go take a look at DNJournal – http://www.dnjournal.com/cover/2013/august.htm

I respect everyone’s opinion but please take the time to get your facts together. Go to a conference, pick up the phone, do something to understand more about what’s going on here…

“I respect everyone’s opinion but please take the time to get your facts together.”

Just because someone does not believe in Daniel’s vision on .XYZ does not mean they don’t have their “facts together”. I respect Daniel, but the person behind something is no guarantee when it comes to a lame product, which is how I see .XYZ.

More than anything you are saying bet on Daniel. Even great businesses and businessmen don’t have success with every product, ask Mark Cuban.

Brad

toddApril 4, 2014, 7:10 pm

“The data I have shows me that Daniel is an absolute rockstar when it comes to launching successful companies.”

Who cares. Just because someone is successful at launching companies doesn’t mean the company will be successful. I bet you not many bet against Richard Branson and Team Virgin when he launched Virgin Cola. How about his cosmetic company Virgin Vie, Virgin Clothing, Virgin Cars etc…..the list is pretty long and they are all failed companies by one of the biggest rockstar marketers on the planet. So it’s pretty clear that you can be a rockstar but if you start out with a mediocre product you end up with mediocre success.

We all need goals in our lives, without dreams and goals we have nothing.
But never throw out numbers, cause if you fall short people will see it as a failure.
If they had to put a number on registrations, then say half of there expected goal, then if they exceed that, it’s a success.

Congratulations to Daniel and the .XYZ team on the NPR coverage. If passion, good marketing and financial resources count for something, .xyz may surprise us. You know where my heart is, but I will not include a shameless plug here.